Posted in: ABC, FX, TV | Tagged: abbott elementary, always sunny, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

Always Sunny Season 17/Abbott Elementary Crossover May "Surprise" Fans

Rob McElhenney teased that the Abbott Elementary/It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 17 crossover may "surprise quite a few people."

Thanks to Jimmy Kimmel and his ABC late-night talk show, we learned at the end of January that the 17th season of FXX's Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson, and Danny DeVito-starring It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia would be hitting our screens this June. That news alone would be more than enough for several days' worth of celebration, but adding a shot of adrenaline to all of that is knowing that we're getting the second chapter of The Gang's crossover with ABC's Quinta Brunson, Tyler James Williams, Janelle James, Lisa Ann Walter, Chris Perfetti, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and William Stanford Davis-starring Abbott Elementary – otherwise known around these parts as "The Greatest Moment in Television." During a recent interview with Decider in support of the fourth season of Apple TV+'s Mythic Quest, McElhenney shared some additional insights into what we can expect.

"That's the beauty of the way we shot those episodes. It's the same story except told through a different lens," McElhenney explained, noting that the look of each episode will be different yet still maintain the same narrative connection that was established in "Volunteers." But even if you're a diehard "Always Sunny" fan, McElhenney adds they you might be in for a surprising treat. "We were able to do the 'Abbott Elementary' tone that's already aired and people got to enjoy — I hope they enjoyed [the episode]. But that same story is going to be told now through the 'Sunny' lens in a few months. And I think we're going to surprise quite a few people," he shared.

Abbott Elementary EPs on "Always Sunny" Turn at Crossover & More

Speaking with EW, Abbott Elementary's Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker offered some insights into the upcoming Paddy's chapter of the crossover. In addition, the EPs discuss a Frank (DeVito)/Mr. Johnson (Davis) backstory that was cut, an ad-libbed joke from McElhenney that couldn't make the Abbott Elementary cut, and why we didn't get much Dennis (Howerton) during this chapter.

Halpern & Schumacker on "Always Sunny" Episode: "It's been written, it's been shot. I was present for quite a bit of it, and it's very cool. The ideal viewing experience will eventually be watching these two episodes back to back, even though I don't know if they've even solidified their date yet, but eventually, they're going to end up on Hulu together and it'll be very easy to access both of them back to back. They do very much play off of each other," Schumacker shared. "Their episode is what's happening in between our episode in the scenes that we're not showing. You're seeing what they're doing. It's really clever the way that they piece together their episode. It's really ambitious," Halpern added.

Frank & Mr. Johnson Have a Grudge Dating Back to High School: "We did at one point have a whole backstory between Frank and Mr. Johnson that they did know each other. It was that they went to high school together. They dated the same woman who was a canonical character in Sunny. That ended up falling away just as a function of, 'Hey, we can't tell that story. Maybe let's save it for another time.' 21 and a half minutes is not a lot of time to tell a story," Schumacker.

Schumacker on McElhenney's "Johnny Knoxville" Ad-Lib: "Ava [James] has a line about the white guys that she's into, and she names Johnny Knoxville and Johnny Bravo. I almost ruined a take off-camera cackling and spitting out my coffee because Rob ad-libbed, 'That Johnny Knoxville guy destroyed his penis. There's nothing there.' I was like, 'Okay, well, that one, we can't say on ABC.'"

Schumacker on Why We Didn't Get Much Dennis in "Volunteers": "Glenn [Howerton] had a show that he is a series regular on called 'Sirens.' It's the Netflix show, and it was shooting in New York. He flew in specifically to work on this and had to fly back. We had him for half a day, so we had to build that in. That was one of those ones where we didn't know if we had him, and so we had to stay a little bit nimble as far as breaking the story. But he's very heavy in their episode."

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